When I was a kid, I never looked forward to my birthday (Sept 4). My birthday meant school was going to start again. Every year, my grandparents gave me school supplies for my birthday, wrapped up like a real gift. I always felt ripped off, because everyone got school supplies when school started. And, to top it off, I always got fooled by the box…it wasn’t a ‘clothes’ box, I always thought maybe, just maybe, it was something good, like a toy. I opened it up, and my hopes were crushed…a box of Composition notebooks and pencils, and usually an ugly bookbag. Oh, how I wished to pick out my own bookbag…I would get a knapsack! Yes, a dreaded knapsack (knapsacks were forbidden because they were the cause of childhood hunchback-ism, according to Grandma)!
Anyone else get crappy birthday gifts growing up?
Rose
Aquavelva…I was 12!
I always got great presents as a kid, I get crappy presents now.
My birthday is near the start of the school year too, but the worst part of that for me was being younger than everyone else.
I received absolutely nothing on several birthdays. Heck, I never even had a birthday party until my co-workers gave me one when I was in my 20s. I tell myself it was because there were five kids and it’s hard to remember that stuff when your parents are working hard. Still, a year doesn’t go by that I don’t stare at the phone and wonder when the 'rents are going to call. They usually remember the day after my birthday (maybe they think my birthday is February 23rd?).
I can’t remember ever receiving a crappy birthday gift. I’ve received lots of crappy Christmas gifts though. Last year I received a candle wreath. No candle…just the plastic wreath.
I stopped acknowledging birthdays when I hit nineteen. Forestalls a lot of disappointment and depression.
A hot Pink teenagers bible for my 13th birthday. Great into to the teen years :rolleyes:
tubagirl, you forgot your r.
Here ya go. r
–Tim
D’oh! That’s hilarious, mine is the opposite end of the spectrum. Every year from a great aunt and uncle in New Orleans I’d get stuff horribly inappropriate for my age. The last time they’d seen me was when I was maybe 6 or 7 and somehow I was frozen in time for them…I think they passed away when I was in high school, but up until then I was getting sent tiny engraved bracelets that I couldn’t get halfway around my wrist or itty-bitty Mickey Mouse purses.
Did anyone give horrible gifts? My brother and I were only allowed to go to the local drug store by ourselves, so my parents ended up getting stuff like deodorant, shaving cream or the horrible seasonal crap drugstores cram into the one aisle they devote to it.
I was the first one in my family to go to college and then get a “suit” job. That first birthday after graduation I was having trouble affording decent work clothes on an entry-level salary, so when my sister asked, I told her I would like a dress shirt or a tie for my birthday. The only suggestion I made is that I liked cotton shirts and silk ties. Yep, you guessed it… two years straight of silk dress shirts.
Cripe . . . I remember once I got a wind-up duck for my birthday (I think it was birthday) from mom’s parents. I was in my teens at the time.
My father once got a used non-birthday card for his b-day from same grandparents.
Like some other dopers, I stopped celebrating my birthday a time ago . . . before my 18th. Only problem is that mom didn’t believe I didn’t want anything done. Was an ugly scene.
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten anything really awful. I’ve gotten some “frozen in time” type presents, usually clothing, though. I think celebrating birthdays has gotten fun again in college . . . this past year I got glow in the dark stars, and playdoh. High quality, fun/silly gifts.
The topic reminds me of a line from Norm McDonald: “Kenny G released his Christmas album this week. Happy birthday, Jesus… hope you like crap!”
The first Sunday in this month was my birthday. I recieved three cards, several "happy birthday"s, and my best friend running off with my girlfriend. They chose the night of my birthday to tell me, at a club where friends had gathered to buy me drinks. They left together that night. Can you say “ripped my heart out and jumped up and down on it” ? Happy birthday indeed.
Its called “karma” . . . and its bearing down on you like a bull after a red assed cow.
I tend to avoid telling people when my birthday is b/c I don’t like the kind of attention they give me on that day. I end up getting schpiels about my age and just annoying birthday rituals, and not the silly embarassing stuff that I like. At least my close friends know if they’re going to make a big deal, to make a silly big deal.
Ok, not a “Birthday gift” but a Christmas gift.
One year an Aunt and Uncle of mine gave me a blue v-neck velour sweater. (my color is hunter/olive/some sort of green.)
Fast forward at least 10 years.
I look in the closet that I’d had as a kid. I pulled out the sweater. It still had the tags on it.
Worst. Ever.
I think my grandfather has given me a cross for christmas for the last 3 years. 
And the sad thing is, I haven’t bothered to tell anyone in my family how much it irritates me to see things that blatantly advertise religion, especially if they’re being given to me. Now I wonder how they’re gonna take it when I tell them I’ve been agnostic for the past three years, if not longer.
I got a pair of yellow bobby socks from an old great aunt, with a walker, who I’d never met before and never saw again.
They were hideous, and I knew she meant well, and I had to be nice, but I couldn’t say one word.
My mother tried to coax SOMETHING out of me, but I just froze and then backed away to my room until she’d gone, and felt guilty about it for years.
My sister’s friend’s dad is horribly cheap.
This Christmas, he got each child a bag of those big ass pretzels, and a gallon jug of liquid cheese.
One year, he announced they were going out to eat. This was a big deal, because they NEVER went out to eat. They got all dressed up, got in the car, and drove to
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the local car dealership for free hot dogs and cherry kool aid.
Very cheap man.
–Tim
For my 19th last month, from my dad: a generic brand calculator and a generic brand pack of cards. I suspect both were picked up from safeway on his way home from work. I have a deep fear/hatred of mathematics, and I’ve never shown any interest in card games in my life.
For my 25th birthday, my father gave me a porcelain doll. And not just ANY porcelain doll - it was one that had long brown hair and green eyes (I’d recently cut off all my hair and dyed it blonde) and was dressed in a bridal gown and veil. It also looked vaguely evil.
He denied that it was a ‘hint’ present, even though he HATED my hair short and blonde, and had been on a kick of telling me it was time for me to get married and give him some grandchildren. And also, I had never in my LIFE wanted a porcelain doll. He said he just got it because it looked like me. Riiiiiight.
I walked into my apartment with it and my roommate screamed. She didn’t want it in the apartment at all, but she settled for me hiding it in my bedroom closet until I got rid of it. That thing was wrong, wrong, wrong. Just wrong.